Panama declares state of emergency over deadly pension protests
The protests that erupted two months ago in Bocas del Toro, a major banana-producing region, intensified this week, culminating in clashes with police that left one person dead and around 30 people, including several officers, the police said.
Over 50 people were arrested over the unrest.
The clashes came after a huge police contingent was deployed to try clear roads that the protesters had blocked with tree trunks for weeks.
The violence peaked in the city of Changuinola on Thursday, where groups of hooded individuals looted businesses and partially set fire to a baseball stadium with police officers inside, the authorities said.
The police said that "vandals" also "took over" the airport, stole vehicles belonging to car rental companies and looted an office and a warehouse containing supplies belonging to US banana giant Chiquita Brands.
The minister of the presidency, Juan Carlos Orillac, said that the government had decided to declare a state of emergency and suspend constitutional guarantees" in all of Bocas del Toro, "in order to restore peace and order."
He said the ban on public gatherings aimed to prevent "radical and criminal groups gathering to organize acts of violence and vandalism which endanger property and people."
Right-wing President Jose Raul Mulino has been facing protests on several fronts in recent months.
Chiquita workers in Bocas del Toro went on strike in late April over pension reforms adopted by Congress in April, which workers say will force them to work longer.
Chiquita sacked thousands of workers over the strike.
The banana growers' unions called off their protest last week in a bid to reverse the layoffs but other groups have remained at the barricades.
Besides the pension reforms, Panamanians have also been in the streets over a deal Mulino struck with US President Donald Trump in April allowing US troops to deploy to Panamanian bases along the Panama Canal.
Mulino made the concession to Trump after the US leader repeatedly threatened to "take back" the US-built waterway.
Mulino has also angered environmentalists by threatening to reopen one of Central America's biggest copper mines.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
Why Iranians aren't rising up - at least not yet
Iran's internal and external opposition groups are facing a pivotal moment amid regional military escalation, but remain divided and unwilling to launch mass action at this time, despite their distaste for the ruling regime. Israel is launching strikes targeting Iran's security apparatus, while Kurdish and Baluchi separatist groups in the border areas are preparing to escalate the situation internally. The Islamic Republic is more fragile today than it has been since the 1979 revolution, but any real challenge to its rule would require a broad popular uprising, something that is still being debated among opposition forces. Calls for change from within In media interviews this week, Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of the late Shah, declared his desire to lead a political transition, describing the current situation as a "historic opportunity" for regime change. For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasised that ending the Iranian regime is one of the goals of the war, noting that Israel is "paving the way for your freedom", in a message to the Iranian people. Civilians fearful of escalation Inside Iran, where the regime is accustomed to suppressing dissent, the Basij forces announced they had put their units on alert. Mohammad Amin, a Basij member in the city of Qom, said his unit was put on the highest readiness to "eradicate Israeli spies and protect the regime". Activists noted that the Israeli strikes, while targeting security structures that had crushed previous protests, led to fear and confusion among ordinary citizens, who expressed anger at both sides, Iranian and Israeli. Activist Atena Damimi, who spent six years in Iranian prisons before leaving the country, said: "How can people be expected to take to the streets? In such terrifying circumstances, people only focus on saving themselves, their families, their friends and even their pets." Nobel Peace Prize-winning activist Narges Mohammadi echoed Damimi's remarks, writing in a social media post in response to Israel's call for civilians to evacuate parts of Tehran: "Don't destroy my city." 2022 protests are faint echoes today Two Iranian activists - who were among the hundreds of thousands of people who took part in mass protests two years ago following the death of Mahsa Amini in detention -have expressed their unwillingness to take part in new protests now. A university student in Shiraz (who is withholding her identity for fear of reprisals) said: "After the strikes are over, we will raise our voices, because this regime is responsible for the war." Another, who lost her university place and was jailed for five months after the 2022 protests, added that she believes in regime change, but it is not yet time to take to the streets. She stressed that she and her friends are not planning to organise or join marches, and rejected calls from abroad to demonstrate, noting that "Israel and the so-called opposition leaders abroad are only thinking about their own interests." External opposition and a complicated history Among the main opposition forces outside Iran is the MEK, a revolutionary faction that played a role in the 1970s and was widely criticised for siding with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988). The MEK was also accused of abuse inside its camps, which the organisation denies. Maryam Rajavi heads the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) - a body that has ties with some Western politicians - reiterated her rejection of any return to the monarchy during a forum in Paris this week. "Neither the Shah nor the regime," she said. Milestones of national protests The level of domestic support for these opposition groups remains unclear. While some are nostalgic for the pre-revolutionary era, most young Iranians do not remember it today. Iranhas seen multiple waves of national protests over various issues: In 2009, citizens protested against what they described as the 'theft of the presidential election'. In 2017, protests focused on difficult living conditions, while in 2022, women's protests erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini. Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former presidential candidate who was accused of fraud in the 2009 elections, has been under house arrest for years and is now 83 years old. He is calling for the system to be reformed rather than overthrowing it, a goal expressed by many protesters in subsequent movements.
LeMonde
2 hours ago
- LeMonde
Israel says three Iranian commanders killed in new strikes
Israel said Saturday, June 21, it had killed three more Iranian commanders in its unprecedented bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic, which Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed had delayed Tehran's alleged progress towards a nuclear weapon by two years. Israel's military said a strike in Qom south of Tehran successfully targeted top Iranian official Saeed Izadi, in charge of coordination with Palestinian militant group Hamas, adding two other commanders from Iran's Revolutionary Guards were also killed overnight. As Israel continued to strike Iran's nuclear facilities and military targets, Saar said in an interview that by his country's own assessment, it had "already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb." Israel "will do everything that we can do there in order to remove this threat," Saar told German newspaper Bild, asserting the onslaught would continue. Israel and Iran have traded wave after wave of devastating strikes since Israel launched its aerial campaign on June 13, saying Tehran was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon – an accusation the Islamic Republic has denied. Israel said it had attacked Iran's Isfahan nuclear site for a second time after its air force announced it had also launched salvos against missile storage and launch sites in the center of the country. The army later said it was striking military infrastructure in southwest Iran. Iran's health ministry on Saturday gave a toll of more than 400 people killed and 3,056 in the Israeli strikes. A US-based NGO, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, said on Friday that based on its sources and media reports at least 657 people have been killed in Iran, including 263 civilians. 'Not prepared to negotiate' Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Istanbul on Saturday for a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the conflict. Top diplomats from Britain, France and Germany met Araghchi in Geneva on Friday, and urged him to resume talks with the United States that had been derailed by Israel's attacks. But Araghchi told NBC News after the meeting that "we're not prepared to negotiate with them [the United States] anymore, as long as the aggression continues." US President Donald Trump warned on Friday that Tehran had a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes, as Washington weighs whether to join Israel's campaign. Trump, dismissive of European diplomatic efforts, also said he was unlikely to ask Israel to stop its attacks to get Iran back to the table. "If somebody's winning, it's a little bit harder to do," he said. Any US involvement would likely feature powerful bunker-busting bombs that no other country possesses to destroy an underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordo. Iran's retaliatory strikes have killed at least 25 people in Israel, according to official figures. Overnight, Iran said it targeted central Israel with drones and missiles. Israeli rescuers said there were no casualties after an Iranian drone struck a residential building in Beit She'an. Israel's National Public Diplomacy Directorate said more than 450 missiles have been fired at the country so far, along with about 400 drones. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted military sites and air force bases.
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Exclusive: Belarus releases political prisoners in surprise decision
Belarus has released a group of political prisoners on Saturday, in a US-brokered deal with President Aliaksandr Lukashenka, Belarusian opposition sources told Euronews. Exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski is among the released. Lukashenka's regime arrested him in 2020 as the then-Belarusian opposition presidential candidate and Lukashenka's direct opponent. The surprise release was brokered by US envoy Keith Kellogg, a longtime advisor to US President Donald Trump, who travelled to Belarus earlier this week for talks with Lukashenka. Since last year, Lukashenka has been regularly pardoning small numbers of imprisoned government critics in what analysts saw as a signal that Minsk was seeking to ease tensions with the West. In the run-up to the January 2025 presidential elections, Lukashenka has pardoned prisoners convicted of extremism, claiming that it was a "humane gesture" toward those who had "gone astray". Kellogg, US special envoy for Russia's war against Ukraine, has said privately that the trip to Minsk could help kickstart peace talks aimed at ending Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to two of the sources. Earlier, exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told Euronews that Lukashenka "cannot be trusted' and Belarus is not a place for negotiations because Lukashenka "is part of this war". Lukashenka is a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has allowed him to stage part of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 from Belarus. "He's a co-aggressor and he's serving Putin's interest, and he cannot be trusted at all," Tsikhanouskaya told Euronews. She described Russia's war in Ukraine as a blessing for Lukashenka and that he did not want it to stop. "(The government) is producing a huge amount of stuff for Russian army, and in this atmosphere of sanctions against Lukashenka's regime, it's a good source of income for him," she added. Who is Siarhei Tsikanouski? Previously a popular blogger, Siarhei Tsikhanouski decided to run against Lukashenka in the 2020 presidential elections and was arrested in spring, long before the summer protests in Belarus. Tsikhanouski was first given 'administrative detention' which prevented him from filing his candidacy before the deadline. His wife Tsikhanouskaya filed her candidacy instead, emerging as a leading opposition candidate. A Minsk court sentenced Tsikhanouski to 18 years in prison with the harshest possible conditions. He has not been allowed family visits and telephone calls. He has also not been allowed to meet with his lawyer confidentially, read, send letters, or receive letters and parcels. In 2023 he was given a new sentence of 1.5 years in prison in addition to the 18-year sentence he was already serving on the charge of 'disobedience to prison administration'. Tsikhanouskaya had no contact with her husband since he was jailed. She previously told Euronews that she did not know if he was alive. 'My children write letters to him, but they get no response. They ask if their father is okay, if he is still alive—it's an incredibly painful situation. My husband's imprisonment is my personal pain, but my goal is to free all political prisoners,' the Belarusian opposition leader said in an earlier interview with Euronews.** Lukashenka claimed victory in the 2020 presidential election deemed fraudulent by the EU and external observers, triggering mass protests. They were violently crushed by police, with tens of thousands of peaceful protesters arrested, and countless detainees suffering torture and other ill-treatment. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya went into exile for fear of prosecution. Many of her close associates, including her closest companion during the election campaign, Maryia Kalesnikava, were jailed. According to the Belarusian human rights centre Vyasna, over 50,000 people have been detained on political grounds after mass protests broke out following Lukashenka's 2020 presidential election win, and at least 5,472 people have been convicted in politically-motivated criminal cases. The United Nations estimates that around 300,000 Belarusians have left the country since then, with most going to Poland and Lithuania. Even today, between 15 and 20 people are being detained in Belarus every day. In 2023, Tsikhanouskaya was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
